Fulford an agent of change
On a freezing cold Dec. 28, I stood on a hillside and watched history being made. Democrat Jonathan Fulford of Monroe announced he is running for the state Senate from Waldo County. The site where he chose to announce his campaign shows what his campaign is about — the 396-panel solar farm built on Belfast’s old dump.
A municipal landfill has become an energy-producing facility that benefits everyone, providing local jobs, lowering property taxes, preserving views and protecting the environment. The committee on which Fulford serves saw an opportunity and proposed an innovative solution: to turn the dump from a wasteland to an energy farm.
This kind of energy and initiative is badly needed in Augusta. Fulford is an agent of change. He’s not about business as usual.
He understands what Waldo County needs: good-paying jobs, less poverty, lower health care costs, support for seniors and no drug addiction. According to Fulford, we can create the jobs to solve our problems right here with a little help from Augusta.
What it will take is making better choices about where our taxes go. Do we keep spending money to heat drafty homes or invest in better insulation and construction? Do we keep giving the wealthiest Mainers tax cuts or lower property taxes for everyone?
Fulford thinks about the long term. I am excited he is running. He is a driving force for a better future for us and our children’s children.
Cloe Chunn
Waldo
Media must hold Trump accountable
In coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, I believe the mainstream media, specifically television, are not doing a good job. I say this in reference to the coverage of Republican Donald Trump. For example, according to Real Clear Politics, Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have about 30 to 35 percent national support from their respective sides. So, why would Trump receive 81 minutes of coverage and Sanders only got 20 seconds on the ABC evening news from Jan. 1, 2015, to Nov. 30, 2015?
To me, it seems as though the media are more interested in covering Trump’s idiocy instead of condemning him for his clear lack of objective and factual information. I think all media outlets need to take more time to condemn Trump’s antics. More Republicans need to call him out as well. If he has only 30 percent support, that means 70 percent of Republicans do not want him.
The media is being disingenuous to Republican voters by overselling Trump’s popularity. It creates the illusion that Trump is more popular than he really is, and this may cause him to gain more followers. If Maine’s Republicans want a strong Republican leader in the White House, I think they should demand fairer coverage of their alternative choices.
I hope that in its political coverage the BDN can continue to provide Maine’s voters with the facts necessary to a healthy democracy and holds deceitful politicians such as Trump accountable to the facts.
Jon Petrie
Orono
Time to prohibit nuclear weapons
It is gravely concerning that North Korea claims it conducted a nuclear weapon test. This is a wakeup call to the world. Because of their catastrophic humanitarian impact, nuclear weapons must never be used again. Despite what presidential candidates are saying, we won’t achieve this by building more nuclear weapons or improving their delivery systems. The only way to eliminate the dangers of nuclear weapons — and prevent their spread — is to work toward banning and eliminating all of them, worldwide.
As a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, I call on the United States and other nuclear-armed countries to stop the new nuclear arms race, now underway, that threatens the entire human race. As former Secretary of Defense William Perry wrote in his new book, “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink,” “nuclear weapons no longer provide for our security — they now endanger it.”
President Barack Obama should direct the U.S. to join the 139 nations that have taken the Humanitarian Pledge to work toward a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons. They will meet in Geneva next month for talks to develop new laws on nuclear weapons. It is beyond time for the international community to prohibit nuclear weapons, just as chemical and biological weapons have been prohibited.
Andrew A. Cadot
Portland